Wednesday, May 23, 2007

From the beginning, this blog has been set up to raise money for non-profit and ministry organizations. The idea came from several different arenas, all of which merged in my brain and just wouldn't leave...so I simply had to try this to find out where it would go.

The blog name comes from a game we used to play in Young Life clubs. Once every year, we would begin our Young Life club by passing out a simple object like a pencil or a paper clip, divide the large group of high school kids up into smaller groups, and send them out into the neighborhoods to 'trade' their objects for something bigger and something better. A pencil would be traded for a pair of shoes (bigger and better), then traded at the next house for an old suitcase, then another trade for a floor lamp, then a stuffed chair. The group would struggle to get the final object back to the Young Life club at the end of the evening to complare it with the other groups' bigger and better trades. Whoever had acquired the bigger and better item won the prize for the evening...usually a scholarship to summer camp!

As I began to remember the incredible fun we had creating an opportunity to trade for something bigger, something better, and the raw anticipation of what the next trade might bring (was this one going to be the big screen TV ??), I wanted to recreate this excitement for a broader audience. But this time, it was in order to raise money for ministry and other non-profits.

How this will ultimately work when I get it completed is that we will begin a something bigger, something better trade over a specified time, and at a certain point make the final trade. Then the final trade item will be sold on eBay or other sites and the money given to certain ministries and non-profits. Just like the original game, everybody wins because they get to trade what they don't want for something they do want, and, at the end of that trade cycle, the final trade item provides funds for some very worthy causes.

Let me know what you think. I'll be working on this over the next few days, so expect more soon. Thanks for checking this out!